Chapter 15-15 Watchers On High (II)

Chapter 15-15 Watchers On High (II)

Look, if youre running a Neurodeck, youre going to want to turn your Meta off. Its as simple as that. Ive seen people try to run both at the same time, but if youre not using one of those Omnitech Thresholder-patterns, the deck flips shit when ghosts swim through it.

Okay. Very basic lesson in Necrotheurgy: When a ghost is extracted from a person, thats like a major facet of their post-mortem cognition. All the thinking they were capable of and all their most critical memories were deprived of animation. What this allows a Necrojack to manipulate, however, is information. Sometimes information in its most foundational form.

Youre following, right? Good.

Now, imbued with scirekinesis, you start moving and twisting critical aspect of what is known in systems, and seeing that soft and hardware of the Neurodeck is aligned to your mind, and your Metamind is like a metaphysical deck in that is constantly and actively altering your consciousness with all the additional memories, emotions, and understandings channeled through your phantasmics

Oh, shit is right. Oh fuck might be even more apt.

Listen. Ive tested both. The voiders Neurodeck is far and away the more convenient, superior, and effective enhancer if we had to choose, but the problem is that we arent living in the void. The problem is were here in the biggest of the big. Decks cant actively protect you from mem-cons like Metas can. Decks cant form phantasmics or jack without some kind of connection in the real. And thanks to the Sprites Omnitech keeps creating with the repeated deletions of their Material Intellecti, not even non-human cognition can be kept safe from invasive alteration.

That doesnt mean your purchase is useless, however. It just means you have to be focused and clever about how youre using it. Right now, the Deck is a reliable secondary asset if you want to jock or stream void-transmitted content and see beyond this little well the Guilds have built for us, but youre keeping that Meta if you know whats good for you.

I know youre trying to apply for Voidwatch citizenship. I know everything youre doing to qualify for their safe passage program and all the imps you have to pay off Omnitechs Thanagild and waive your death obligation to become your own person. And youll do it. Youll make it. Youre so close, but you need to slow down.

If you let Omnitech find out too early, theyll screw the legs out from under you. They dont want you to leavethey dont want anyone to leave. And a surefire sign of betraying your wants is getting that deck grafted before the time is right.

Be patient. Dont fall before the end.

-[Redacted] to [Redacted] on Neurodecks and Metaminds

15-15

Watchers On High (II)

Draus tapped Avo on his shoulder before anything could follow. Hey. Im gonna go on a bit of a jaunt of my own. Got some things I need to do.

Someone you want to snuff? Avo asked.

She offered a quiet laugh. More than one. But thats a side-gig. Still have a barge I never picked up along with all the shit inside it. Gotta take care of that aliong with some other whos and whats while you have your little meetin with the voiders.

Dont want to join in? Avo asked.

Her bio-rigs helmet clicked together, encasing her face behind an insectoid aesthetic. Nah. Theyre askin for you. Sounds like an invite-only kind of thing anyhow. Wordless, she turned to step out through the passage and froze mid-step. There is one thing you might-could do for me. Ive heard things about the kit they had

He understood. Want new guns?

Her smirk could be tasted from the emanations of her thoughtstuff.

[Ever the Regular,] Abrel muttered.

I see, Avo said, releasing a quiet hiss of amusement. Any specific designs you want sampled?

All of em. But who knows what theyll allow you. See what you can do. Kits always reliable. Dont want to be usin our Heavens for everything. Shits loud.

Take Chambers with you, Avo said. Maybe Kae too. Good for us to continue acclimating to each others eccentricities.:

The Regular regarded the other two and shook her head. Aint gonna be that rough of a run, consang. Have your half-strand do the jackin thing in the meantime. Seems to me like a better use of his time. Kae can spend her while thinkin up how to optimize our Heavens.

Yes. I concur. The Agnos agreement came with a bit too much haste and vigor. Try as she might, the leak of her discomfort remained. She could kill, but the action felt vile to her, and the feeling of death brushing her senses sickened her.

He could remove her aversions with but a thoughtsculpt everyone around him to what he thought their ideal psychologies to be. The option was there, ever-teasing, ever-tempting, but his flames stayed his own. Such a simple transgression struck him as a betrayal of more than trust but assumptions. He was gauging their effective worth from his own narrowed perspective. Burning each of them into his mind as a template would indeed benefit of an immense scale, but he wanted the choice to remain theirs.

For what worth was absolute power if he was so keen to betray personal ideals out of impatience?

Before I give you this injection, I need you to understand the dangers Im exposing my people to, she continued, ignorant or apathetic to his shift in demeanor and speech.

Your people, Avo asked.

You can already guess who I really belong to. When the Nerve-Mesh Neurodeck is fused to your brain matter, youll realize there are things you can do with the Sprite that you couldnt before. Thats because you now have functional hardware. Its also going to expand the number of people you can jack, burn, and null by a substantial margin. The stars will, in a way, open up to you, and youll glimpse a new hunting ground filled with memories and contents unconsumedat least for as long as the nanosuites half-life lasts. I need you to promise me you will not harm the people.

He regarded her with new understanding. This was more than just fear. This was the marriage between anxiety and trust expressed by a being with ironclad control over their expressions. She was effectively walking a warg through a flock of lambs and telling it not to feed, for on the hill beyond stands a judgment of hunters, and perhaps through them he might rise even further than the rankness of his rapidly departing beasthood.

It will torment me, Avo said, letting the truth twist out from him. But I have been tormented before.

Denton stood, turned, and fixed him with a final resolute stare. Her met her gaze unshifting, unblinking, and for a beat, their perceptions remained two spear-tips picking at one another as if lockpicks instead.

Finally, her head dipped as she climbed the last three steps into the threshold of the room and led him to his chair. In the far corner knelt Essus, muttering quiet prayers and whispering nothings to the wall as his accretion crested and fell on waves of tumult. He did not turn to regard Avo upon hearing the ghouls entry, but tensing of his shoulders signaled his awareness.

Have a seat, Denton said as clicked the back of the nanosuite. The sides of the injectable were unlatched and folded backward to form a pressure--based delivery mechanism as she gestured for him to lower his head. The needle was the thinnest he ever seen and the way the nanos swirled within the tube, lashing and craving for his presence instilled him a sense of unease.

Such is what our prey feels when we take them in our embrace, master, the Woundshaper said. All fear their devouring. All fear their replacement. To be less thanthen apart of something unfathomable.

He overthrew his worry and lowered his head regardless. Denton had gone far to secure this opportunity for him. The time to betray and bind him was long past. The present was built upon trust and truth, and regardless of what was to follow, he would try to be less

Unstable.

A few buzzing bees darted by Avo as extensions of Sunrises colony stood witness to his subtle augmentation.

Im going to administer the contents under your eye. Youll feel a tickle first. It will spread through your central nervous system. Youll want to be seated in case of any twitches and spasms that might follow, and then, after approximately thirty seconds, youll receive an inquire asking you if you accept the installation of the Nerve-Mesh Neurodeck. Just blink twice at the yes option.

Like my cog-feed? Avo asked, forcing his head still using internalized haemokinesis. The glint of the tip drew closer, and with inhuman dexterity, Denton slipped the injection between folds of fiber and flesh without ever arousing any pain.

Not exactly. Denton squeezed the folded clamps of the injection. The lights along the nanosuite flashed green and the word injecting pulsed as a holographic for a heartbeat. The substance entered through his left optical cord like sand crawling behind his eye.

There was no tickle at first. It was more than an inch that spread, and he fought the urge to scratch at himself using his own blood before the graft was completed. A delayed note of interest spread through him as he regarded the now emptied injectable once more.

This was why the Guilders seemed so soft to him regardless of their heightened enhancements. Their grafts were delivered with comfort and with symmetry in mind. For an enforcer, a better arm came with the cost of losing an arm first, and chrome demanded a steady supply of immuno-suppressants, tweaks, and bi-monthly grafter visits at the least.

The FATED never felt the weight of their ascensionnever knew the pain of the blade before their vessels were imbued with new edges to its potential.

But Avo did.

More than anyone else the city, he knew what it was to go from having all gifts denied to claiming highest bounties.

{Initializing}

{NERVE_MESH V10.22}

*APPROVED ON TRIAL BASIS

{Would you like to begin installation (yes/no)}

He did as Denton said. And only then did the inch become a tickle as a new HUD overlapped with his cog-feed.

{Good morning, applicant.}

The voice was a unified chorus not so unlike what he heard when speaking to the Hungers. Avo looked toward Denton seeking answers but she just remained silent. Applicant.

{If you are seeing this message, this means you have been tapped for Operation Revisionist, and the Conensus would like to offer you a position in Aegis. Your interview will initialize upon the installation of your Neurodeck. Please remove all other aspects of interference and ensure that you are in a safe and secure environment before uploading your stack into Threshold.}